Broncos' Nate Irving Eschews Partying for 'Pokemon'

JERSEY CITY—With Sunday's NFL title game being staged just outside New York City, football stars in town have partied and socialized at a Super Bowl level. Members of the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks have indulged in West Village restaurants, Chelsea nightclubs and Knicks and Nets basketball games.

Broncos linebacker Nate Irving has his own plans for a wild week: He will stay in his Jersey City hotel room and, for three hours a night, try to capture adorable monsters with names like Pikachu and Jigglypuff in a Japanese kids' videogame called "Pokemon."

Irving, 25, has no desire to leave the Jersey City Hyatt and visit Manhattan. "I'm actually going to sit in my hotel room, play my 'Pokemon' game," he said.

This is Irving's idea of fun, and it does not surprise his teammates, who say he must be the nerdiest player in Super Bowl XLVIII.

"He does little weird things," said Broncos defensive end Robert Ayers.

A self-described introvert, Irving is the antithesis of Seattle's brash star cornerback Richard Sherman, but he'll play an equally important role in Sunday's game. The third-year linebacker, who was promoted to the starting lineup after Broncos star Von Miller tore a knee ligament in December, will spend Sunday trying to smother Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch and quarterback Russell Wilson.

Irving spent his early childhood with his mother in Newark, where he and his friends passed time by playing football, playing "Pokemon" card games and sometimes throwing rocks at buses. When he turned 13, he decided to move in with his father in North Carolina to stay out of trouble.

He played football at North Carolina State—where he was teammates with Wilson for three years—though he missed the 2009 season after he fell asleep at the wheel of his Chevrolet Tahoe, crashed and wound up in the hospital with a punctured lung, separated shoulder and fractures in a leg and rib. He returned to play in the 2010 and, after getting his degree in parks recreation and tourism management, was picked by the Broncos in the third round of the 2011 NFL Draft.

That's when the Broncos locker room got a little weirder.

Irving likes to talk to himself, sing to himself and dance by himself. Ayers said he once spotted Irving driving home after practice, bobbing his head up and down to music. The stereo wasn't on.

In his free time, Irving tends to his two pets, male and female bearded dragons he calls "the big man" and "the little girl," and plays videogames. A lot. On Tuesdays, his day off, he plays "Call of Duty" with a college classmate from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and again from noon to 7 p.m., taking a break in between to eat and watch game film with other linebackers.

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He packs his Nintendo handheld videogame system on road trips so he can play "Pokemon" on the planes and buses. Sometimes he doesn't really want his teammates to see him doing so. "I try to hide it from them," Irving said, "like bend over in the seat, like I'm asleep, or play with my head down."

But sometimes wide receiver Demaryius Thomas and linebacker Wesley Woodyard catch him. "Wes will look at me and say, 'Bro, what are you doing?'"

But Irving said he smiles when anyone calls him a weirdo. "I know not too many people are into the things I'm into," he said. "I just embrace that and I enjoy it."

Irving, who set a career high with 41 tackles this season, said he has no plans to venture outside his hotel in his free time during Super Bowl week, in part because he's already been to New York plenty of times. But he promises he won't spend all his time playing "Pokemon." He might occasionally mix things up by watching HGTV, the home-improvement cable channel.

Irving hopes to build his own house one day. "It's good," he said of HGTV. "I sit there, looking at all the different things you can do. It kind of fascinates me."

I have to start out and say, I am not a huge fan of football, nor do I watch every game. Yet this caught my attention due to the Pokemon aspect. lmao, I'm a 27-28 year old self titled 'Pokemaniac' and I for one think it is totally awesome seeing a football player liking the games! I find it a bit refreshing to see Nate in the headlines for something so fun and clean. It would fun as all hell if your fellow team mates ended up joining you in playing the games! Anyhow, good luck in your football games and Pokemon as well, who knows you may end up with one of the Pokemon I've sent out with Pokerus! XD Play on and most of all have fun doing what you love!

My wife and I are both grown ups who came of age during the Pokemon era, and we both played until recently.

The key is, when looked at as an adult, the pokemon games have a depth that borders on that of chess or other serious strategy games. The BEAUTY is that the games hide it from kids so it's accessible, but it's there if you are an adult and care enough to look for it. It's not just a child's game, if you bother to learn the actual rule structures underlying the apparent rock-paper-scissors nature of the game.

The point is: a hobby is a hobby is a hobby. Just because something might appeal to children doesn't make you childish or immature for enjoying it.

This is not a bad thing. I applaud him for not following the crowd and not being ashamed to say, I want to do something other than hang out at the clubs or hang with the guys. He's not hurting anyone so bravo to him!

I have to agree, the author of this article is an idiot who puts this star's relaxation hobby in a terrible context. Guess what, Mr Woo, this guy is still a fantastic athlete, and just because he's spending time on a childhood pastime instead of on strippers, doesn't mean you need to describe it in such a demeaning tone. He is more successful than you will ever be. Good luck in the game tomorrow, Nate!

What a horrific article. This is the equivalent of someone bullying another person because they don't like what the other person likes. The journalist who authored this article doesn't realize that someone can be a "nerd" or a "geek" about all sorts of things. What is different between someone that likes to play Pokemon and someone that likes to play golf? Or the person that can name numerous Pokemon or name the brand of 4 iron Tiger Woods uses? It isn't a crime to be interested in something. Just because someone is interested in something that you aren't doesn't make them a suitable target for such a mean-spirited and callous article. I expect better from the WSJ.

Good for him, it always puzzled me why everyone thinks you have to get drunk and stupid and in trouble like justin bieber to be considered normal in todays society.

Somewhere, Somehow in the US introversion/introspection became dirty and bad, when these are the exact things, that are needed to help individuals cultivate their virtues and talents to become better people

The majority of the greatest thinkers, founding fathers were men of introspection, where cultivating ones talents, virtues was important in becoming leaders and contributing members of society, much like the Confucianism in the East.

Today we celebrate meaningless extroversion, bragging, showing off one bling, and trash talking as ideals to strive for instead of modesty, really is it any wonder why things have gone down hill, when children think such things are normal.

Well this nerd is certainly decided on who to root for now. GO BRONCOS! *\o/*

Also, there's no need to put quotes around Pokemon. It's the name of the franchise in North America and much of the world. While it is called Pocket Monsters in Japan, it still shortens to - you guessed it! - Pokemon (because of how word combining works in Japanese). So, kindly remove the unneeded quotes, please and thank you?

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